Checkerboard Life
by Ninja Vocaloid
Summary: Kai becomes frustrated with all of the lessons he's being taught. But what will happen when he and his friends get sent into a totally different world, are forced to strategize against their will, and are to battle the opposites of themselves? Their lives turn upside-down as they realize that they were sucked into a game of checkers. T: Possible violence. More Ninjago. XD


My hands itch to flip the checkerboard off of the table. Zane beat me at the game again. Zane sighs, "Kai, you are too impatient. If you would think through things, you would gain a better strategy. If you would just—"

"Yeah, yeah. I get it. Think more. Calm down more. Well, you know what, why don't you just stay unbeatable?" I snap as I stand up abruptly.

Zane takes a few deep breaths. The boy tries too hard to cope and put up with me. They know how fiery I am. I'm shocked they're still my friends, honestly. My pale friend explains, "It is just a game of checkers. I would take advantage of the moral being offered here."

I shake my head. "No. I just give up."

His pale blue eyes worriedly search my face. His senses can detect anything gone wrong in less than a few minutes. Bet you can't guess how he accomplishes it- patience. I'm sick and tired of Sensei Wu tricking me into listening into this boy's annoying lessons. I also feel a little bit sorry for Zane, since it is he who Sensei is forcing to be the teacher. I walk hurriedly to the kitchen, my brown spikes bouncing rapidly atop my head.

Jay, my other ninja friend, is bustling about, gathering different herbs of all sizes and dumping them carefully in hot water. He mutters something to himself about the girl named Nya. He bumps into me carelessly as he scuffles to the cabinets.

"Going somewhere?" I muse. I fold my arms and look down at the shorter male. He pushes his red-brown hair away from his glowing green eyes.

He stutters, "Oh, h-hi, Kai. Just making tea."

I question, "For whom?"

"Err… Me." He fakes a cough. "See, I have a really sore throat…" His voice trails off as my accusing stare bores into him.

"The truth, Jay." I ball my fists. "It's for my sister, isn't it?" Nya had fallen ill recently, and Jay has been quite frantic. We aren't sure what she is sick with, and it has lasted a while, and Jay can only accept worse case scenario in most situations.

Jay lowers his gaze to his feet. "Y-Yeah." He brushes past me, trying to get to the storage bins.

I sigh and side step, letting him in. What can you expect from such a lovebird? This day has been sort of crappy, with all of these confusing stories and lessons. What's next? A cooking lesson from Cole? No thanks. I ponder over what Zane said about being patient. Then I realized something. My friends are the most valuable people I could get lessons from. Not Sensei. Not Dad. But from my own brothers. I gaze at a wall while I think about this. Zane is trying to push some responsibility and patience onto me. The guy's two best things about him. That and, well, his sixth sense. He can't really teach me that, though, unless… Augh! More patience stuff! Jay, on the other hand, is the best example for kindness and love. He contributes so hard to the team and to my sister, who's hacking her head off. Literally! She usually likes to skim through security codes or whatever just for the fun of it when she's sick, and I can hear her going through a coughing fit right now. Poor Nya.

I snap back into reality when Jay is practically shouting at me. He is telling me to get out of his way since he has a scalding hot tray in his hands and about how he isn't afraid to dump it on me if this keeps up. I shake my head to clear my thoughts. I ask Jay quietly, "Can I come with you? To see Nya, I mean."

Jay nods and takes the lead down the hallway and towards Nya's room. I knock on the door. She calls, "Come in!"

I push through the door, eager to see my sister. "Hey, sis."

"Hi," she greets. "Hi, Jay." She happily thanks him for the tea and sips it.

We all talk for a while, and then I decide to leave my sister in my friend's hands. "I'm going to go find Cole." What can I learn from him? In the middle of the hallway, I stop dead in my tracks. Wait; am I actually anxious to learn something? I recall the checkerboard incident. My emotions are sort of like a game of checkers. You feel like you're going one direction, which in my case would be anger, but then a piece blocks you from going there. One 'smart', snotty move makes you feel like you're king of it all, thinking you're blocking all pieces from getting to you, but then an enemy piece jumps you. Or even worse, double-jumps. You're forced to recreate it into a new plan, symbolizing how changes in attitude can happen. Like me right now. Rethinking it all sort of makes my brain hurt. Metaphors and similes kill me, especially when I think of a clever one. Then it'll never make since to me again.

I slide the glass door open and I walk outside and into the brisk, crisp, snowy air to find Cole training hard. I stride over towards the porch step and sit on it. "Hey, Cole," I announce.

"Oh, hi, Kai," he pants, taking a short break to come next to me. He lowers onto the stone steps. "What's up?"

"Not much. Just being bored," I admit, resting my head on my hand. _Have anything to teach me? _I want to say. But I'll let it come gradually. "So, you're just training?"

"Yeah. Just trying to become stronger." He takes a sip of icy water from his grey water jug.

I take on a thoughtful posture. "Does it require patience?"

He looks taken aback and confused. He's probably thinking, _Since when does KAI care about patience?_ But instead he replies, "Sure, I guess you could say that. After all, improvement doesn't happen five minutes after you train. It takes tons and tons of practice."

My mind processes this. You would, I guess, have to love the idea of becoming better and stronger.

He adds, "It also makes you not only physically stronger, but mentally stronger, too."

"What do you mean?"

"When you train, you have to wrap your mind around it. You have to think about how this could improve you or worsen you, and the patience comes in play whenever you think of how to accomplish your task. Therefore, you're mentally stronger."

I slowly nod. I don't really get what he said, but I'm not going to have him say it again. It must've been hard to think of stuff just out of the box like that.

That night, I crawl into my bed thinking over it all. The four of us chat amongst ourselves about what we're planning for tomorrow, what we did today, and how hideous Cole's stew tasted. My tongue is now scarred. In the middle of the night, a huge storm rolls through. We try to turn the lights on, but the power went out. Looking out the window, we realize we aren't in Ninjago anymore…

**-huff- This took half of my brain a while to catch up with my other half. I get these really weird/cool theoretical ideas, and I have the hardest time explaining it, as said by Kai. I can stumble upon something, try to figure out how to write it, and then never be able to understand again. –shrug- Oh, well. DISCLAIMER: I don't own Ninjago or anything. Not checkers, not "We aren't in _ anymore…" etc. etc. etc. I got this idea when playing a virtual game of checkers last night. Hope I nail it! X3**

**-Ninja Vocaloid, the only one who'd make Zane do Hatsune Miku's leek spin to Ievan Polkka.**


End file.
